Culture | The idyll and the abyss

A startling bard of environmental disaster

Introducing Adalbert Stifter, one of world literature’s most enigmatic storytellers

Motley Stones. By Adalbert Stifter. Translated by Isabel Fargo Cole. New York Review Books; 288 pages; $17.95 and £14.99

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The idyll and the abyss”

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